Barnes & Noble said it turned a profit in its fiscal second-quarter as higher revenue from its Nook e-book and e-bookstore division offset a decline at retail stores.
The largest traditional US book retailer has been fighting tough competition from online retailers and discount stores by investing heavily in its Nook e-book reader.
Sales from that division rose 6% to $160m. Digital content sales rose 38%.
Barnes & Noble introduced two new Nook e-readers, a 7-inch Nook HD and 9-inch Nook HD+, during the quarter, which began shipping just after the quarter closed.
Net income totaled $2.2 million for the three months ending October 27. That translates to a loss of 4 cents per share, however, after the impact of preferred stock dividends and the figue matched analysts' expectations.
The results compare with a loss of $6.6m, or 17 cents a share, the same time last year. Revenue was nearly flat at $1.88 billion. Analysts had expected revenue of $1.91 billion.
Revenue from stores fell 3% to $996m. Its college bookstores' revenue rose less than 1% to $773m.
It said that Revenue in stores open at least one year, excluding sales of Nook products, rose 1.8%. The metric is considered a key gauge of a retailer's fiscal health because it excludes stores that open or close during the year.
